National Task Force (NTF) against COVID-19 Chief Implementer and vaccine czar Carlito Galvez said that China’s Sinovac and Russia’s Sputnik V are among the first two coronavirus vaccines which will undergo clinical trials starting January 2021.
“The Sinovac and also the Gamaleya will undergo clinical trials here this coming either December or first week of January,” Galvez said in a media forum.
The country’s vaccine panel has given the green light for the clinical trial of Chinese Sinovac in October.
Sputnik V, on the other hand, reportedly has an efficiency of 95% but still subject to further study.
Galvez said that Sinovac is considered to be among the safest vaccines and no reports yet about possible effect to those who underwent trials.
“The vaccine experts have briefed me about the safety and efficacy of the vaccine. They said one of the safest vaccines is basically from China because it came from the classical vaccine platform. There is no reported adverse and life-threatening incident with this kind of vaccine,” Galvez said.
Galvez added that initial talks with the Chinese manufacturer are underway.
“Meaning, we can foresee that there is the greater, better scenario that we can get the vaccine in the first quarter, maybe March or late February,” Galvez said.
